


The Blessed Light

by Jean Genie (Su_Abeille)



Category: Penny Dreadful (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fix-It, Happy Ending, Love, Season 3, Season 3 Finale, Season 3 Finale retcon, Strength, Wisdom, connection, power
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-21
Updated: 2016-06-21
Packaged: 2018-07-16 08:22:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7259944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Su_Abeille/pseuds/Jean%20Genie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The light of the dawn is upon Vanessa's face.  And those she loves have set her free.  </p><p>This is the ending I believe that Vanessa and all of us deserve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Blessed Light

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a way of working through how the finale made me feel, and for all of the other PD fans out there, especially the Ethanessa ones. I believe Vanessa deserved better. I believe that the idea of death as the only way out is a lie. I believe that the way you win is through living. I believe that the darkness is always eclipsed by the light. I believe that love has the power to save you, to set you free from your demons. I believe in family, a community coming together and defying fear and all the toxic things it triggers.

Suddenly there was a light on her face. 

Her mind was muddled, confused, but dawn’s first rays were warming her face. She could see the light even through her closed eyes. 

Like a feather falling from a bird’s wing, her consciousness floated slowly down, down, down, to lay again within her. Awareness blossomed inside her. She felt pain, a deep soreness, throughout every part of her body, but something else. She was pressed against warmth, a warmth mixed with a familiar scent, but her newly awakened consciousness refuted it, couldn’t believe it to be true. Then she felt the arms wrapped tightly around her, the chest against her cheek. 

She had to see. She had to open her eyes and see the dawn.

Ethan. It was him. She knew this to be real, not an illusion. His wolf face was above her, his supernaturally strong hands clutching her body to him in a possessive, protective hold. He was looking around him, snarling. Vanessa heard a voice, a warm familiar voice.

“She's safe. Please let the doctor check on her.” It was Sir Malcolm, it was his deep voice, the voice of her father. 

Ethan growled fiercely and held her even tighter to his body. 

He was there. He was real.

“Ethan.” Her voice was barely a whisper, but he heard it. Yellow eyes met hers, full of so much animalistic devotion. So much was conveyed to her in that look, so many emotions, all coming back to that singular bond. 

“My love, my wolf.”

 

She was weak, very weak. She laid in bed, floating in and out of consciousness, for days. Her dreams were haunted. She saw the darkness that she’d sacrificed herself to. She saw the pitiless creatures who had called her mother. She saw the eyes of the man who had hunted her, who had lied to her, who had manipulated her. Then these creatures were mauled and bloody in piles around her. From within the embrace of her wolf she saw him, saw his body, shredded, with his head laying several feet away. Her mind connected this with the lightness inside her. She had been set free. 

When she would come to, it was like a beautiful fantasy, glimpses of the people who she loved, those whom she had missed so desperately. Sir Malcolm standing at the foot of her bed. Victor’s face close to hers as his delicate touch healed her. Dr Seward’s voice in her ear, droll, pragmatic, warm with concern. Cat with her curling smile and affectionate eyes. 

Then there was Ethan, always next to her. Every time she would reach for him, he was there. 

Ethan’s hand, Sir Malcolm’s voice, Victor’s touch, Doctor Seward’s eyes, Cat’s smile. They had come. They had saved her. She was loved, protected. She was no longer alone.

 

Finally she was strong enough, coherent enough to be awake and sitting up. The blood loss had made her weak, and still light headed, but this wasn’t what she was struggling with. 

Her mind could not fully grasp what had happened. It still seemed like an all too perfect dream. A part of her was afraid that this was another trick, another trap she’d been lured into. Sometimes, when she looked over at Ethan, gently smiling at her, she felt apprehensive. She’d learned to not trust happiness. 

Ethan understood. He always did.

Late in the afternoon, she woke up from a hazy dream about a blue eyed little girl and felt Ethan’s fingers lightly caressing her face. He was looking down at her, smiling the exact same smile as the little girl in her dream.

“I have a surprise for you.”

He picked her up with his strong arms so gently. She put her arms around his neck and buried her face into her throat, felt the brush of his beard against her skin. Her eyes closed, and she tried to let herself believe this was real. She felt the cadence of his walk gently rocking her, the familiar scent of gunpowder and whiskey and him all around her. She was enthralled, lost in him.

“Vanessa.” His voice rumbled in his chest under hers and she could only murmur in response.

“Vanessa.” It was Sir Malcolm, saying her name with such love.

She opened her eyes then, and saw the light.

 

Ethan had placed her on a fur in front of the fire, a wolf skin that he had brought back with him all the way from America. He had wrapped a soft blanket around her shoulders, propped pillows around her, then sat on the corner of the grate next to her. 

From this safe cocoon with the warmth from the fire behind her, she looked around at all the faces that surrounded her. Sir Malcolm sat in the arm chair to her left, a glass of whiskey in his hand, grinning at Dr Seward. She was smoking her black cigarettes and giving him one of her no nonsense speeches. Vanessa could see the amused delight in Sir Malcolm’s eyes. 

Cat was sitting in the middle of the couch with a snifter of brandy in her hand, smirking at Victor . Vanessa could tell that she was goading him, trying to get a reaction out of him, and succeeding. Victor looked vaguely exasperated, trying to explain the difference between myth and fact. Cat looked over at her quickly and saw Vanessa looking at her, and smiled that flirtatious Cheshire grin at her. Vanessa couldn’t help but smile back, and the ghost of this feeling, of that expression, became real in that moment. 

Ethan was speaking to Kaetenay, who sat in the armchair to her right. Vanessa studied the face of this man, of Ethan’s father, and saw the same deep connection to the other world that she had in herself. This was where Ethan had gotten his strength, his wisdom. 

She looked up then at Ethan, his face lit by the flickering firelight, and she realized then what had happened within her. The void that had been hollowed out when he left, it was no more. It had been filled to overflowing with love, with comfort, with protection. 

Her eyes moved over all of these people, all of these faces, and felt that darkness forever leaving her. She was free. These people had set her free. And they were all here, all around her, all safe, and happy, and connected. 

The walls within her crumbled and joy washed over her. Tears traced down her cheeks but a smile, a smile like none she’d ever smiled before warmed her face.

She reached out and took Ethan’s hand in hers, and he saw her tears.

“Vanessa?” He said with concern and she shook her head at his worry. All of them were looking at her, care and affection in their eyes. Her chin trembled with her tears, but her smile grew bigger, as big and bright as the light inside of her.

“You’re here. You’re all here.” 

The sun of the late afternoon filled the room, and everything was golden.

**Author's Note:**

> Last night, to make myself feel better, I read the last chapter of the part three of The Lovers, and was so very grateful for the AU that I had made, and so happy that I had it to share. I have more stories for that AU, I have a 40+ page one that I wrote last month that I was waiting for the season to be over to post and I will be sharing it soon. This Vanessa and this Ethan, they are always going to be a part of my headcanon and that's more powerful than anything else. [>Here's a chronological list of the stories in The Lovers Season 3 AU](http://homicidalbrunette.tumblr.com/post/147624311887/the-lovers-by-jean-genie-alternate-season-3)


End file.
